How many of you have already made your proverbial New Year's Resolutions and plan to start them when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2004 as we welcome in 2005? Raise your hands. How many of you plan to follow through with your resolutions for more than, oh, say a week or two? Raise your hands."
Wouldn't you like to know how to motivate yourself so you can create a plan of action that actually moves you toward some real goals? Think how fantastic you would feel if by January 1, 2006, you could look back at all you have accomplished because you learned how to motivate yourself and used it to achieve something that was impor tant to you. Let me give you some of the secrets to understanding motivation.
Until you know what and how you are motivated, there is not much chance for a success story here. So, how are you specifically motivated? And what are the components to motivation?
There are five motivational traits or triggers. There is no right or wrong, or better or worse traits/triggers in the bunch. They are just behavioral patterns that once observed help us use them as allies and strengths rather than looking at them as being some weak and unworthy part of ourselves. See if you can better understand yourself by identifying which traits have the strongest pull for you.
C R I T E R I A
THE FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO IDENTIFY AND FIND IS YOUR CRITERIA. These are terms/words you use to describe the way you make distinctions, what's good, bad, right, terrific, awful, wrong, etc. These words can be our "hot buttons" that first get pushed by family and friends, so when we hear them used out in our current world, we react in either a positive or negative way and also feel a physical and emotional attachment to them. They are words like: Justice, Failure, Comfort, Achieve, Respect, Approved, Reliable, Oppor tunity, Inner security, etc.
Answering these few questions will give you an idea of what some of your Criteria might be.
Underline the important words. These reflect some of your criteria; how you make distinctions about what's important in your world. Knowing this is instructional because it can give you a surefire means of deciding what is more or less important to you in a given context. It helps you sor t out what positions itself at the top of the list when things need to get done.
D I R E C T I O N
ARE YOU MORE MOVED BY THE CARROT/TOWARD OR THE STICK/AWAY FROM? What will get you to take action? Which direction do you move? Do you move toward an object to gain a benefit from a goal or situation or wait for someone else to initiate the action or a deadline to get you moving? Do you move away from a problem to be solved or prevented or toward just jumping in and getting it done? Some people are in the middle of the road here. Remember that we move in dif ferent ways according to the context of what we are dealing with. Which of these sets of traits gets your emotional attention?
S O U R C E
DO YOU USE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL SOURCES WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS? Do you enjoy getting information from the outside and then make a decision about it based on internal standards, or do you need others opinions and direction and feedback from outside sources before you can make a choice? Folks with an Internal trigger provide their own motivation and hold standards somewhere within themselves about things that are impor tant to them. Folks with an External trigger gather standards from outside sources and do better with making decisions when there is an outside reference. Which are you, Internal, External or in the middle?
R E A S O N
HOW DOES A PERSON REASON? Are you in a continual quest to find the alternative, the different way, the OPTIONS? Does hearing the words unlimited possibilities, and the sky's the limit, or never-ending oppor tunities, get you fired up? Do you also have trouble following through? Folks with Options triggers aren't so good at follow up. However, folks with PROCEDURE pattern as their trigger like to follow set ways. Seeing a beginning - middle - and an end to a project gets their blood moving. They believe there is a "right" way and are most interested in "how" something is done, not "why" which turns on those with an Options trigger.
D E C I S I O N F A C T O R S
What is your rationale factor; your raison d'être factor? How often do you need change and how do you react to it? Some of us like nothing to change within a par ticular context ever. We like SAMENESS, what one thing has in common with another. If it were left up to us we would wait 15-25 years before we made a change. What's wrong with how it was before? However, there are others of us that can go for SAMENESS WITH EXCEPTION. It's all about evolution. Changing slowly over time is best and they like comparisons on a sliding scale. A major change is OK ever y 5-7 years. Then there are those that love change, love DIF FERENCE. The words revolutionary and dramatically dif ferent get us moving toward a destination; forget the trip. These folks need drastic change ever y year and may leave if they don't get it. Last but not least are those that enjoy SAMENESS WITH EXCEPTION AND DIF FERENCE. They enjoy revolution and evolution and both the journey and the goal. They like change ever y 3-5 years.
Perhaps now you can better understand some of the many factors involved in how and why you are motivated. I feel that the better one knows him or herself, the better singer, per former, friend, colleague, you become. Tr y to identify some of these traits/triggers in your circle of colleagues and friends. It may help you to understand them even better.
Next time I will share some of my secrets for CREATING A PLAN OF ACTION. Until then, Happy New Year! And promise me you won't make any New Year's Resolutions you can't keep.
Avanti!
Ciao, Carol
P.S. If you want to be in touch, contact me at [email protected]. Talk with you soon.
